my daughter knows of someone looking to re home there spur thigh (ibera) tortoise. i am interested but am not sure if it (dont know the sex) can live with my hermmans. now i know a few people that have mixed them and have been ok even bread them together (not as a breeder). but what would you guys say! is it ok? does sex matter? will there be aggresion?

thanks

karen. xx

No, it is not a good idea. They carry different pathogens that can be fine with one but can be lethal to another. Also if they do breed, apart from the issue of producing hybrids, which is never a good idea, in the process one can be severely damaged. Hermanns have a long spur on the end fo the tail, so if a hermanni male was to mate with a spur thigh female, he could damage her severely in the process as spurthighs are not built to take this treatment and also if a male pur was to mate with a female hermanns, he could severely damage the shell, as butting is part of the spur thigh breeding behaviour and a females shell is not built to withstand this treatment either. Your friend may well have bred from her odd mix, but I would like to bet there has been some damage along the way :(

Even when mating two hermanns or two spur thighs together, care has to be taken that they are of the corrrect subspecies as there are several subspecies within spur thighs and the same with hermanns. You will always get irresponsible breeding, but that does not mean to say it's OK. You don't say what subspecies your hermanns is or the spurthigh, so I would leave well alone for the good of the tortoises.

ok thank for the info also if i was o get a friend for my herrman who is male what would be best for him!

Possibly another male if he is only young, they would likely do a bit of sparring to decide on who was top tortoise and then settle down, but if you have any females around it would not work as they would fight. If you were to introduce a female then you would need to intoduce at least three males as he would stress just one female too much with his unwanted advances. On the whole males are best homed alone - there are lots out there for rehoming as people find out that they either fight or harrass the females constantly :(